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Charles Lindbergh famously fell asleep while
crossing the Atlantic, and despite strict federal rules against it,
experienced airline pilots say it's not uncommon to sneak a nap
inside the cockpit.


      The Northwest pilots who blew 150 miles past Minneapolis this
past week insist a clandestine snooze isn't to blame for their goof
at 37,000 feet. "Nobody fell asleep in the cockpit," first
officer Richard I. Cole told The Associated Press.

      Aviation safety experts and fellow pilots don't buy it, arguing
the most likely explanation for missing more than an hour of radio,
cell phone and data messages is a drowsy flight crew. The prospect
alone could renew focus on pilot fatigue and research that suggests
controlled catnaps might actually make flying safer.


      "If you really need a nap, you're far better off taking a nap
than ignoring your body and being tired during takeoff and
landing," said Kit Darby, a pilot who said he took the occasional
mid-flight nap during his 30-year career at several major airlines.


      "It was not uncommon to do that. If you needed to take a nap,
you took a nap," Darby said. "As a captain, I would encourage
it."


      International carriers including Air France, British Airways and
Qantas allow pilots to nap, but sleeping while flying is prohibited
at U.S. airlines by the Federal Aviation Administration. Just last
month, the Air Transport Association again pressed the FAA to allow
controlled cockpit napping, citing NASA research that found a
mid-flight snooze significantly reduces the risks of overall pilot
fatigue.


      "Other regulatory agencies have endorsed it for many years with
no adverse consequences," the group, which represents the major
U.S. airlines, along with associations for regional and cargo
airlines, wrote to Margaret Gilligan, the FAA's associate
administrator for safety.


      The NASA study begun in 1989 allowed one group of pilots flying
across the Pacific to take a 25-minute nap while their co-pilots
flew the planes, while a control group was required to remain awake
for the entire flight. Those without the naps nodded off five times
as much - including while on the approach to the airport - as those
who got some sleep.


      The research didn't sway the FAA, but it didn't go unnoticed
among those pilots who break the agency's rules by catching some
sleep while in the cockpit, said Curt Graeber, the former chief
engineer for human factors in Boeing Co.'s commercial airplane
division.


      "We used to call it the NASA nap, or snooze cruise," he said.


      FAA rules currently allow airline pilots to fly eight hours in a
16-hour "duty day," which includes briefings and other
preparation time. Commercial airline pilots often make long, tiring
commutes to reach their departure point; the pilots of the San
Diego-Minneapolis flight live in Oregon and Washington state. Once
on duty, pilots can sit for long hours behind a locked door minding
a plane that is largely automated once they're airborne.


      American Airlines pilot Sam Mayer said problems with fatigue are
greatest among pilots who make several short trips a day, sometimes
for three or four days in a row. Flight 188 captain Timothy B.
Cheney and first officer Richard I. Cole had just started their
work week and were coming off a 19-hour layover, the Minneapolis
Star Tribune reported Saturday, citing an internal Northwest
document it said was described to the newspaper.


      Under their contract, American Airlines pilots who refuse to fly
because they're tired are protected from retaliation. Skipping a
flight means not getting paid for those hours, and Mayer said the
Minneapolis incident "is more anecdotal evidence that pilots are
fatigued out there."


      On long international flights, a third pilot joins the flight
crew so that one pilot can sleep while two remain at the controls.
But Graeber said working a long-haul flight can be less tiring than
flying a small commuter jet at low altitude on multiple takeoffs
and landings on one shift.


      "There's a lot more stress than flying a 747 with a bunk in the
back," he said.


      The NTSB plans to investigate whether fatigue was a factor and
will interview the pilots next week. Northwest, acquired last year
by Delta Air Lines Inc., has suspended Cheney and Cole and is also
investigating.


      An airport police report said the men were "cooperative,
apologetic and appreciative" and volunteered to take tests that
were zero for alcohol use. They told police they missed the airport
because they had become distracted by a heated discussion,
something retired Delta pilot Joe Mazzone said could have led them
to miss a critical radio handoff between air traffic controllers.


      "You're talking about 15 minutes if they were at 500 knots,"
Mazzone said. "It's not long at all."


      But Mazzone, who flew jet airliners for 23 years, said it's just
as possible they got caught napping.


      "It's kind of like being in an operating room. You know the
physicians and the nurses ... are listening to music, telling
jokes, they're doing what keeps them alert," he said. "Things are
happening that if the public knew about it, they wouldn't
understand it, but it's done. They've got the same thing in the
cockpit."

Gallery

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Business and Economic News

Charles Lindbergh famously fell asleep while
crossing the Atlantic, and despite strict federal rules against it,
experienced airline pilots say it's not uncommon to sneak a nap
inside the cockpit.


Could letting pilots take a nap make flying safer?

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